I have been involved in motorsport for probably nearly 60 years. Once rallying became the norm I, as a trials driver, felt that speed was not really my thing and moved into the administration and organisation side of the sport.
Hence my involvement with the original South Island Silver Fern in 1970—the plaque of appreciation still hangs on my wall.
These things do tend to go in cycles and for a number of years I took no active part in the sport. However, when the call went out back in 2004 or thereabouts for people interested in recreating a marathon rally like the original Silver Ferns, my hand shot up.
By this time I had teenage boys who, I suggested, might like to get involved. This is why we were part of the Silver Fern team in 2006, 2008 and 2010, during which time we were trained to step into any place that became short staffed for whatever reason. In reality it meant that we did rock clearing and block marshalling as required.
My teenage son James was very keen to compete at car-club level—we belong to Marathon and Thames Valley Car Clubs—but I would not let him compete until he had served his apprenticeship by helping as an official on many events.
Although he now competes in club events, we all still enjoy being part of event organisation.
Early rally involvement
- 2011 Rally New Zealand (Waikato)
- 2011 Rally Whangārei
- 2011 Rally of Gisborne
- 2011 Rally of the North
- 2012 Rally Whangārei
- 2012 Rally New Zealand
- 2012 Rally of Gisborne
- 2012 Rally of the North
- 2012 Rally of Maramarua
- 2012 Silver Fern Rally
The SBT Tairua Stage Timing Team became pretty much full strength at nine people. Personnel changed around a little, but in general we became a fairly well-oiled machine. We therefore also marshalled and timed for local car-club and invitational events.
We lived at Tairua on the Coromandel and happily travelled the country. Although the Silver Fern was held in the North Island that year, we were usually quite used to a 5,000-kilometre trip to “do the rally”.
For Gisborne, Whangārei and Rally of the North, I would get the boys off school and we would travel in my one-million-kilometre Toyota service van, arriving in time for shakedown or whatever was required.